(Topic ID: 5446)

First toy mod help...

By dnhayden

12 years ago


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    #1 12 years ago

    I recently finished shopping my first pin (Baywatch) and I am anxious to do my first toy mod on the machine. I purchased a diecast HH-65C Dolphin helicopter (Amazon for $11.49 w/ shipping) and now I want to deck it out with LEDs and a small motor to run the blades during certain gameplay modes. The chopper is going to be placed in the upper right corner of the playfield (with my preliminary calculations it should fit perfectly, but we'll see.).
    I was first inspired for this project by watching videos from Ed Cheung's Robot toy mod http://www.edcheung.com/album/album08/pinball/tz2.htm and also from the mods done by this fellow in Germany http://wolfsoft.de/wordpress/?cat=17 (Especially interested in the rotating UFO mod w/ LED's he has for ATM/RFM.
    I am looking for any advice that may be out there before I dive into this project. Thank you for your help.

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    #2 12 years ago

    Excellent idea. I might want to do something like that with my Baywatch!

    My advise would be to never drill holes in your machine. Future owners may not like your mod and want to remove it. I have seen some pretty crude ways of attaching mods in some machines and these often irreversibly damaged the machine. There are always ways to attach mods without drilling new holes. For example, you could use some wire as "stilts", bend an 'eye' and attach under an existing screw or post.

    Just my $0.02, please do post pictures of your progress!

    #3 12 years ago
    Quoted from robin:

    y advise would be to never drill holes in your machine.

    Agreed good advice-especially on the playfield. The one exception I would make is attaching things to the top of the top box, as small holes up there as small holes up there aren't visible asnd are easy to repair.

    I would guess it is a really expensive game and mint its probably better to leave it as is.

    It looks like a potentially great mod that will enhance your game.

    #4 12 years ago

    Thanks for the input so far. I definitely wasn't planning on drilling any new holes or making any modifications that can't be put back to original. Using wire to support the mod is a great tip. There are 3-4 screws that hold down clear plastic pieces that are connected to the plastic ramp in the upper right of the machine(behind "Tourist Season" and "IRONMAN" signs). I was planning on using those as my anchor points whether I decide to use wire for supports or if I fabricate some sort of bracket.
    The mounting part isn't as much of a concern to me at this point, its more of how to get power for the LEDs. I'm looking to wire up 3mm or 5mm LEDs in series with the proper resistor attached (been learning a lot from Youtube), but i want to make sure it's ok to jump power off of certain lighting circuits to make them work. I also have no idea what sort of motor to look for when it comes to powering the helicopter blades.

    #5 12 years ago

    This is a great resource when trying to power your LEDs from the machine's GI circuitry:

    http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

    Source voltage is the voltage measured from the GI string you're using
    Diode forward voltage and diode forward current (mA) are in the specs for your LED

    Screen_Shot_2011-08-30_at_14.03.17_.pngScreen_Shot_2011-08-30_at_14.03.17_.png

    #6 12 years ago

    Thanks robin. Any ideas on what type(and where to buy) of low voltage motor I can use to power the helicopter blades that will run off of a GI circuit or flasher? Would something like this work?http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102828

    #7 12 years ago

    I've seen plenty of mods with the leds inserted in various toys, but the motor idea is great. Hope it works out and keep us posted so we can do the same.

    #8 12 years ago
    Quoted from robin:

    This is a great resource when trying to power your LEDs from the machine's GI circuitry:

    http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

    Source voltage is the voltage measured from the GI string you're using
    Diode forward voltage and diode forward current (mA) are in the specs for your LED

    thanks for that advice Robin! Will put that to use on other pins

    #9 12 years ago

    Update on my progress.
    Here is a vid as well.

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    #10 12 years ago

    Outstanding..

    #11 12 years ago

    Looking good! Wanna see it on the playfield already!

    #12 12 years ago
    Quoted from robin:

    you could use some wire as "stilts", bend an 'eye' and attach under an existing screw or post.

    I like the wire mount idea, keep us updated

    #13 12 years ago

    Very cool idea. Look forward to seeing it in action!

    #14 12 years ago

    Great job dnhayden!
    Can't wait to see the final placement!

    #15 12 years ago

    So now that i have the blades working well off of 3V(2 AA batteries), any ideas on how to get the motor to work correctly off of a lighting circuit on the machine? I don't want to just start hooking up wires willy-nilly and have things catch on fire. I'm thinking that i need to have a diode or something in front of the motor, but I'm not exactly sure.
    Another thing is, I need to figure out the combination of LED lights that I want to put on the Helicopter(They will be 3mm and/or 5mm). I'm thinking one circuit 2 blue 1 orange, second circuit one red one white...Yea or nay???

    Pic of helicopter for lights that I'm going off:

    hh65dolphinsmall.jpghh65dolphinsmall.jpg

    #16 12 years ago

    Nice job on the motor.
    You could tap off of a 5 VDC supply to power the motor.
    Use 3 1N4002,3,4,5 diodes in series to lower the voltage to ~ 3 VDC

    #17 12 years ago

    Today I ordered some stuff from superbrightleds.com. I got a variety of colors of both 3mm and 5mm LED's, a ton of resistors, and some mounting bezels and caps. Now it's time to play the waiting game for the mailman. BTW thanks again for all of the helpful comments and suggestions, it makes this little project all the more exciting to accomplish.

    #18 12 years ago

    So right now I'm at a stand still with this mod because i'm waiting for the LED's to arrive. Anyway the motor that I'm using currently comes from a cheap fan that I bought. I started to wonder if the motor was going to get too hot if it ran for a long time. The fan is powered by 2AA batteries(3v total). I decided to make the motor run the blades for about 90 seconds to see how hot the motor would get. After the test, I felt the little motor and it was super hot to the touch. This can't be good.
    The next test that I did was to just hook up one AA battery(1.5V) to see how it worked. The blades seem to turn at the same rate, and i held the motor in my fingers letting the blades turn for about 3 1/2 minutes without the motor getting hot.
    I guess 3v is too high and i need to drop it down around 1.5v. How do you calculate how many diodes to add to drop the voltage?

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    #19 12 years ago

    Very clever. I want to buy more puns just so I can try to think up creative mods.

    #20 12 years ago
    Quoted from Rascal_H:

    Very clever. I want to buy more puns just so I can try to think up creative mods.

    You don't have to buy the pin, just pretend you have it and make the mod. That's what I do. I'm already thinking of one for BTTF and I don't own it.

    #21 12 years ago

    That is a great idea

    #22 12 years ago

    LED's and diodes finally arrived today! Time to start drilling some holes.

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    #23 12 years ago

    Good luck!
    Make us proud!

    They are all counting on YOU dnh!

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    #24 12 years ago

    Looking good dnhayden! I would like to offer you advice on the calculations you need, but I'm not that good with electronics. The way I do it, it start with a high resistor (so the component barely works) and go up from there.

    Yeah, not so good, but it works for me.

    #25 12 years ago

    Looks like that's going to be one killer mod can't wait to see pictures of it working and on the playfield!

    #26 12 years ago

    First nite class: LED 101

    Teacher:

    Books/Materials:
    1. (Breadboard) http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2734155 ,
    2. (5mm Orange LED) http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/component-leds/5mm-orange-led-30-degree-viewing-angle-4000-mcd/293/1220/ ,
    3. (39 Ohm Resistor) http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/resistors/1-4-watt-carbon-film-resistors-through-hole/901/2229/,
    4. (Best wire I could find lying around) Cat-5 wire from personal stash ,
    5. 2 AA Batteries

    Cheat Sheet:
    http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz Thanks Robin!

    ***Vid/Pics of homework to follow soon...

    #28 12 years ago

    I dig the 3mm blue ones...

    #29 12 years ago

    Drill bit to plastic... Here is the result.

    1 week later
    #30 12 years ago

    Bump. Can't wait to see the next update on this unique mod.

    3 weeks later
    #31 12 years ago

    When are you going to finish this up so you can make me one?

    #32 12 years ago

    hell yes. This mod is going to be fantastic!

    #33 12 years ago

    I need to put in the time and finish this one. Thanks for the encouragement. I'll keep ya posted.

    1 month later
    #34 12 years ago

    idea.. stolen:

    I'm catching up dn.. you think about putting LEDs on the propeller blades?

    #35 12 years ago

    Woot! I remember this thread. Nice job mystic. Can't wait to see one of these suckers installed.

    #36 12 years ago

    Lookin good Mystic.

    #37 12 years ago

    ran across this last night for the powering issue, instead of tapping off the existing wiring it runs off a wall outlet converter you plug into the aux outlet inside the cab and you have a light sensitive resistor on a small board that "senses" when the game is on.. bam. That's awesome. It also would turn off the heli lights and blade in any sort of blackout mode the game has, because obviously, the resistor wouldn't be getting any light.

    The only issue is then the blade would be running constantly when the game is on.. maybe I can modify it somehow...

    The good news is that with the wall converter you can select your voltage for the necessary task (and I already have one that I'm using on the breadboard), anywhere from 3.5 to 12v. Currently just the blade is taking 6.

    http://www.pinballnews.com/learn/ldr.html

    1 year later
    #38 10 years ago

    Bumping this thread - did this ever come to fruition????

    -Nate

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